A four-year-old girl is being treated in Beijing after allegedly being sexually assaulted in a room next to a court office by a former employee.

The case came to light when a weeping girl, known only as Tongtong, told her grandparents about the attack, local media reported.

A former court employee, a local man in his 40s, has been detained by police, an official from Zhangzhuangpu township's public security office in Hunan province confirmed to China Daily yesterday.